Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1476979
14 CFO / FINANCE 5 most 'overpaid' healthcare CEOs By Ayla Ellison D espite many CEOs cutting their base salaries last year due to the pandemic, those moves had little effect on overall CEO pay, according to an annual report from the nonprofit shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. For its report, As You Sow evaluated CEO pay at S&P 500 companies. e nonprofit used data to compute what CEO pay would be assuming such pay is related to cumulative shareholder return. In its methodology, a ranking of companies by excess CEO pay and by shareholder votes on CEO pay are each weighted at 40 percent. e final ranking based on CEO-to-worker pay ratio is weighted at 20 percent. As You Sow notes some CEOs may no longer hold the positions listed below, as the rankings were calculated using data made available before June 30, 2021. Here are the five most overpaid healthcare CEOs, according to As You Sow: Leonard Schleifer, MD, PhD (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals) Pay: $135.35 million CEO-to-worker pay ratio: 933:1 Excess pay: $121.68 million Javier Rodriguez (DaVita) Pay: $73.43 million CEO-to-worker pay ratio: 1,137:1 Excess pay: $59.8 million Alex Gorsky (Johnson & Johnson) Pay: $29.58 million CEO-to-worker pay ratio: 365:1 Excess pay: $15.95 million Michael Neidorff (Centene) Pay: $24.96 million CEO-to-worker pay ratio: 362:1 Excess pay: $10.94 million Ari Bousbib (IQVIA Holdings) Pay: $25.58 million CEO-to-worker pay ratio: 266:1 Excess pay: $10.64 million n CMS pitches outpatient payment rule: 5 things to know By Ayla Ellison C MS has released its Outpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule for 2023, which would raise Medicare outpatient payment rates next year. Five takeaways from the 886-page proposed rule: 1. Payment update. CMS proposed increasing OPPS rates for hospitals that meet quality reporting requirements by 2.7 percent in 2023 compared to this year. The department estimates that total payments to providers would be $86.2 billion in 2023, up $6.2 billion from 2022. 2. Inpatient only list. CMS proposed removing 10 services from the inpatient only list next year. The procedures were removed from the list in 2021 as part of the first phase of eliminating the IPO list, but they were added back to the list when the elimination process was halted last year. CMS said the codes for the maxillofacial procedures "meet the current criteria to remove services from the IPO list." 3. 340B program. CMS said it anticipates applying a payment rate of average sales price plus 6 percent to certain drugs purchased through the 340B Drug Pricing Program. "We are still evaluating how to apply the Supreme Court's recent decision to prior calendar years," CMS said in a fact sheet. 4. Rural emergency hospitals. The proposed rule includes a payment model for rural emergency hospitals, including a monthly facility payment. "To improve access to all types of care in rural settings, CMS is broadly proposing to consider all covered outpatient department services … as REH services," CMS said. Rural emergency hospitals would be paid for providing services at a rate that is equal to the OPPS rate plus an additional 5 percent payment. 5. Comment period. Public comments on the proposed rule are due by Sept. 13. n Arizona hospital to close June 30 By Ayla Ellison Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital in Green Valley, Ariz., is closing June 30, according to Green Valley News. CEO Steve Harris said the decision was made after the hospital was unable to secure emergency department staffing for the Fourth of July weekend. The closure announcement came less than a week after the hospital issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice, which gives the hospital's nearly 300 workers at least 60 days notice before a mass layoff or closure. The hospital issued the layoff notice after Tucson, Ariz.-based TMC Health canceled its bid to buy the hospital. The closure of Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital will leave the area with one hospital, 18-bed Northwest Medical Center in Sahuarita, which opened in 2020, according to the report. n